Op-eds from across the country: Trumpcare 'endangering lives'

Yesterday, House Republicans passed a Trumpcare bill that would mean higher costs and less coverage for American families. Now, while the Senate figures out what to do with the dumpster fire they’ve just been handed, Americans are speaking out in op-eds across the country about the potential impacts of Trumpcare on their lives and the lives of others:

“With his yes vote on Thursday, my representative, Steve Chabot, told me I mattered less than his healthy constituents because I happen to have been paralyzed at birth. As a 26-year-old young adult, I have only recently aged out of limits to remain on my parents' health insurance plan. Ahead of me is a lifetime of doctor appointments, tests, medications, procedures, and surgeries. That is to say nothing, also, of the future costs of medical equipment I need to sustain a high quality of life. I wonder if Mr. Chabot could look me in the eyes and tell me that I deserve to pay higher premiums because of my disability?” – Neil Kelly, a Symmes Township resident

“I would not wish what my family has endured on anyone, even the legislators who voted to take away the protection that gave us such relief. I don’t really care about theory, about which is the more efficient way to rein in costs, or to give families the most choices. To me, preserving the principle that people should not be punished for a fate they could not control seems fundamental. At the end of the day, this is not about ideology. It’s about humanity.” – Susan Chira, senior correspondent and editor on gender issues for The New York Times

“Many rape survivors cannot pay the significant expenses incurred in the aftermath. They need assistance without being forced to pay a premium for their trauma and denied coverage altogether. Lawmakers have a responsibility to reject bills that inappropriately rely on our status as survivors to diminish our worth. Our suffering cannot be reduced to a ‘preexisting condition’ that allows insurers to turn us away at will.” – Carly Mee, a staff attorney at SurvJustice

“If Republicans really want cheaper insurance policies to equal quality care, then they need to guarantee coverage, and make that affordable by reining in health care profits. Because getting cheaper insurance at the expense of endangering one’s life is not a health care bargain.” – Theresa Brown, a hospice nurse

Trumpcare “sets the clock running on a return to the days when the poorest Americans chose between health care and shelter or food, to the times when people without coverage faced bankruptcy or other financial ruin if they or their family members got sick. That’s not just sloppy — it’s incredibly irresponsible.” – Stephen Henderson, editorial page editor of The Detroit Free Press

“House Republicans, eager to upend the Affordable Care Act (ACA), have passed a bill that independent arbiters such as the Congressional Budget Office say would increase the number of uninsured by millions, cut Medicaid by $800 billion, and raise premiums and deductibles — especially for those with preexisting conditions. But if this legislation, in its current form, is eventually enacted, the fallout won’t come immediately or all at once. It’s likely to take place over the course of several years, in a sequence of events affecting tens of millions of people.” – Jacob Leibenluft, a senior adviser at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

“To be clear, this bill does nothing to improve the health of Americans. Nor does it reduce the staggering cost of health care, or lessen its inexorable rise. The likelihood is that the overall health of our citizens will get worse, especially among those who cannot afford the full coverage they have today, including a large proportion of Trump voters. All the bill accomplishes is to shift the burden of paying for health care from the wealthy and healthy to middle class and unhealthy citizens.” – Bill George, Senior Fellow, Harvard Business School and Former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Medtronic, Inc.

“Two days before the Kentucky Derby, House Republicans hit the trifecta: They used an undemocratic process to pass a healthcare bill that’s awful on the merits and can only hurt them politically… Trumpcare would quite simply be a humanitarian nightmare, resulting in untold avoidable death and suffering for no good reason. At least it’s now obvious — though it should have been obvious long ago — that Trump is not a compassionate populist and that Ryan is not a policy wonk.” – Scott Lemieux, an instructor of political science at SUNY Albany